


if you really hold me tight

by htbthomas



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Community: shipswap, F/M, Kissing, Pining, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing a Bed, Snowed In, growing closer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-05-29 20:24:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6392269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/htbthomas/pseuds/htbthomas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara, James and Cat get snowed in together at a crappy motel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if you really hold me tight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alessandralee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/gifts).



> Set pre-kiss in Supergirl 1.18.
> 
> Thanks to myrifique and LadySilver for brainstorming and beta help!

"Remind me to fire the meteorology team when— _if_ —we ever escape this hell."

Cat is pulling her wool coat tighter around her shoulders and shivering, even though the heater is working fine. Extremes of cold and heat have never bothered Kara, but she gets it; the snow is coming down heavily and covering the windshield faster than the wipers can handle. James just rolls his shoulders and tightens his grip on the steering wheel.

Kara can see ahead, the snow fading before her X-ray vision, that there's a motel on the right, the kind that accepts cash through a glass cage. She searches for something better, anything, but she doesn't see one anywhere nearby. If they keep driving in this snow, they're going to end up stranded in the car. And then she'd end up flying them home. What was the point of going to all that trouble to cover up the truth from Ms. Grant if she was going to blow it only weeks later?

"Maybe there's a place we can pull over…?" Kara suggests, in that tone that alerts James but not Ms. Grant. 

Cat's already on her phone, tapping and swiping away. "There's nothing for miles. Not in the hills." She's beginning to look worried, not just annoyed.

Kara glances over at the hotel app Cat is using. It wouldn't list an old, dingy place like the one Kara knows is ahead. "Maybe there's somewhere else we can shelter, to wait it out."

"Yeah," James says encouragingly. "It doesn't have to be a Hilton."

"Speak for yourself," Cat says, but shrugs her shoulders in the way Kara has learned to interpret as you're-right-but-I-don't-have-to-like-it.

Kara sees the place ahead, then, with her regular vision, and she points. "Wait, is that something, over there?" She pretends to squint through her glasses. "Sierra Motor Inn."

Cat is already looking it up, frowning. "It doesn't even have any reviews." Then she sighs. "Still, any port in a storm."

Kara relaxes. She was hoping to avoid having to talk Cat into it. They needed a place to stay, no matter how rundown the place.

* * *

"This place is a total dump!" Cat declares after a millisecond's look at their room. 

"It has a…" Kara desperately searches for something positive. "...working heater?"

Cat walks up to the pitiful machine and holds a gloved hand above it. "Barely."

James is next door. _"Twenty bucks extra for adjoining rooms,"_ the bored clerk had said before Cat passed him her platinum card. The way his eyes glittered, Kara was sure he wished he'd made the fee fifty instead.

Cat plucks at the coverlet on the double bed farthest from the door. "I don't think I want to know what's on these." She looks at the curtains and the bathroom fixtures with distaste as well. "I'm not sure I should risk using the shower, but we were in that car for hours and I'm exhausted.…"

"You go ahead, Ms. Grant," Kara says. "I'll get unpacked."

She gives her an of-course-I'm-going-first look and then closes the door behind her. Kara gives the room another once over with her enhanced vision. It is indeed as germ-infested as Cat fears it is. Earth-based germs have no effect on Kara. But a little heat-vision can take care of the ones that might harm Cat…

She knocks on the door to James' room after unpacking. "James?"

He opens it and she walks through and closes the door behind her with a quiet _snick_. His room doesn't look any better, two double beds with old mattresses and even older linens. "May I?" she says, gesturing to the room. His brows draw together but he nods.

She gives his room a heat-vision sweep, and he tests the coverlet on the bed he has chosen. "That's better than the heater was doing. Germ-free now?" he guesses. 

"Better than Lysol," she says with a small smile. 

He plops down on the bed, and the springs creak menacingly. "Uhh… wow. Maybe we should have taken our chances in the car?"

Kara adjusts her glasses, a nervous habit that only increases around James. "Or maybe I could fly you home…" She looks through the mattress to the aging, rusted springs. "...safe in your own bed." Oh no, now she's thinking about his bed. Her face heats.

James doesn't notice—or maybe he ignores it, whichever, she's grateful—and argues in a low voice, "No. If you tell Cat now, after you finally convinced her you _aren't_ Supergirl, she's going to be twice as furious."

"I know," she says, deflating, and sits on the opposite bed. The springs creak even louder. "It's not an emergency, no one's life is in danger."

James chuckles. "Clark would probably have stayed in the car and secretly heated the air inside just to avoid doing something like this."

Kara's eyes widen. "Would he?" Then they narrow. "Did he?"

"To hear Lois tell it… he held onto that secret a lot longer than necessary." James lips turned up in an affectionate smile. "She had to practically force it out of him."

Kara shifts uncomfortably. Clark spent years with no one knowing at all—except his parents. And here she'd worn the cape for less than a year and so many people knew the truth: friends, family, enemies alike. 

Suddenly she feels James's hand on top of hers, his long fingers entwining with hers. "I'm not saying you should have. You're not your cousin. You shouldn't be. I like that you're different."

She focuses on the hand, and gives it a light squeeze. "Thanks. I just keep thinking about how long it's going to be until the plows come through."

He doesn't answer, just nods, his thumb tracing a gentle path up and down her thumb. A phantom warmth is traveling up her arm at the contact, and she wants to do more than just clasp hands. No matter how inappropriate that would be. It's probably a good thing they have separate rooms, and their boss is just on the other side of that wall right now.

The water goes off in the bathroom next door. "Cat's done in the shower. I should—"

James drops his hand from hers. "Yeah." He stands and snags his jacket from the back of a chair. "Maybe I'll see if there's anything newer than the last decade in the vending machine." 

She slips back into the other room just as Cat is leaving the bathroom, dressed in her earlier clothes. None of them have a change with them, after all, other than the supersuit Kara hides below her clothes. "The water went cold before I was even half done," she says, rubbing a towel on her hair. "Not that I'm surprised."

"That's okay. I can wait an hour or two before I try it myself." Kara can shower in cold water, anyway. But James should get a shot at it first. "James went to go see what's in the vending machine."

Cat makes a face. "I'm… not feeling very hungry. I'm going to turn in early. I want to be on the road the _moment_ the roads are clear enough."

Kara nods. "Yes, Ms. Grant."

Cat stops rubbing and turns to look at Kara. "Tell him thank you, though." She pauses to consider the bed, then lays her coat over the coverlet, to protect from whatever horrors she imagines are there. "I didn't like that coat much anyway."

Kara just smiles awkwardly—she wishes she could explain that the room is horror-free now.

* * *

Kara crunches into a potato chip. They're edible, and less stale than expected. "Oh come on," she tells the static-y screen. "Don't investigate the smoking crater!" She immediately covers her mouth. "Oh god, I hope that didn't wake Cat up." She listens carefully for any hitch in Cat's breathing, but there's no change, and Kara sighs with relief.

James watches her relax, and then nudges her arm. "'Cause nothing good can come from another world?"

Kara pops another chip in. "Nope!" she says through crumbs. "Not in a 1950s movie, anyway." She gestures at the screen, "And now they're going to carve out the eight-foot monster frozen under the ice with axes? Oh, please."

"Heat vision is so much faster."

She laughs. They've been ripping on _The Thing from Another World_ for the last half-hour—it's on the only station that comes in. When it comes in at all. James gives her a sidelong glance as he pops a snack cake in his mouth. He's enjoying this. Good. Anything to keep his mind off the storm outside. She's enjoying it, too. Anything to keep her mind off how much she wants to kiss him. 

Kara usually does the snacks-and-old-movies thing with Alex. She'd probably be tearing apart all the ways the military team isn't following procedure. The screen fuzzes out again and then goes dark. "Aww," she frowns.

"Yeah, too bad. We don't get to see how the crew is picked off, one by one."

She shakes her head. "Nah. The crew saves the day by electrocuting the alien."

James lets out a huff of surprise. "You've seen it already?"

"Hey," she says, spreading her hands apart in challenge. "You think there's an alien invasion movie out there I _haven't_ seen? You'd be sorely mistaken."

"Noted."

But it's only nine p.m, and now they don't have anything to do. And she's not tired at all. How will she be able to sleep knowing that James is just on the other side of the wall?

There has to be something. She scans the room for something to do, anything, and she lets out a little gasp of happiness when she X-rays a drawer. "Cards!" 

"Excuse me?" he says, taking a swig of soda.

"What do you play?" She brings the deck over, fanning the cards out on the table next to the window. "Poker, spades, gin… old maid?"

"I play a little of everything. A lot of long hours waiting for news to break. But…"

"What?" she asks, shuffling the cards at super speed. They're mostly there, the queen of hearts is missing, but they can sub in the Joker in a pinch.

"Isn't it kind of… pointless… to play against someone who can see through the cards?"

Kara's mouth drops open in mock shock. "Why, James Olsen. I can't believe that you'd accuse _me_ of cheating." She folds her arms across her chest in affront. "Me, the poster girl for truth, justice and the American way."

"I'm not saying you're going to cheat!" His eyes go wide in embarrassment. "I just—I played a lot with Clark before I knew, and when I think back—he must have let me win an awful lot."

"Or he's a terrible card player," she snarks. 

"Kara!" He laughs.

"He can't be great at _everything_ , can he? Anyway, I have to turn the X-ray vision on and off intentionally. It's not automatic. I promise to keep it set to 'off.'"

Still, he holds out his hand for the deck and shuffles it himself. "So you've never cheated at cards, not even once?"

"Well…" There were a few times she thought about it in college, especially when her meal plan was running low. But a home-cooked meal was only a short flight away. "I can't say I haven't been tempted."

That seems to satisfy him. "All right, let's play. Pick your poison."

The first thing that comes to her mind is Hearts, and she shoves that idea far to the back of her mind. "Gin."

They play for a couple hours, changing games whenever one of them starts winning too much, but when she sees James hiding a yawn, she knows she has to let him sleep. She pulls her best fake yawn. "I… I think I'm going to turn in."

He yawns again, this time not hiding it. "Yeah, me too. See you in the morning?"

"When else?" she teases.

Kara sneaks back through the door between the rooms, closing it behind her as quietly as she can. Cat doesn't stir, thankfully. Kara sits on the edge of her bed, thoughtful. She should probably _try_ to sleep. They have a long drive back, even if the roads are plowed early. But she can go longer without sleep than humans can, so losing a little sleep is no big deal. And it's cold, but she's slept in colder before…

Wait. It's cold. Too cold.

Kara tiptoes over to the heater and holds her hand above the grate. It's blowing, but cool air instead of warm. How long has that been going, slowly freezing Cat in her bed? Kara whirls and sends a light stream of heat over Cat's body. Cat turns over, moaning gratefully in her sleep.

That will do for now, but what about when—if—Kara falls asleep? She might not even notice how cold the room was getting… No. The heater in James's room is still working. For now.

She places her hand on the doorknob, and starts to turn… and then thinks better of it. She wouldn't want to walk in on him. However he's clothed. She squares her shoulders and raps lightly on the adjoining door instead.

A few moments later, the door opens a crack. "Kara?" He's fully clothed, though he smells of aftershave and soap.

"The heater's out in here," she whispers. "Is yours still on?"

He nods. "You need my help with Cat?" he mouths, glancing toward the still form on the bed.

She doesn't really need help, considering she could lift Cat, and James, and the car they came in… but for appearances' sake… "Maybe." She tiptoes over to the bed, and gently shakes Cat's shoulder. "Ms. Grant, wake up."

Cat's eyes spring open. "Did the plows come through?" She sits up as if she'd just been taking a brief power nap. "Get the car warmed up."

"No," Kara says, biting the side of her lip. "The heater's on the fritz. We need to share with James."

Cat groans with irritation. "First germ-infested rooms and now no heat? I've a mind to get this place shut down. Except it's already halfway there."

Cat ends up in the bed nearest the heater—weak, but still on. James tries to volunteer for the floor, but Kara refuses. "I'm not really even that tired," she tells him. "I'll just curl up in the chair and read or something." Her phone has a couple ebooks on it somewhere.

And that's fine for the next hour. Cat is sound asleep again. James is sleeping, too, but fitfully. He pulls his knees in below the covers, his body heat spiking to compensate. She thinks about warming him up the same way she did Cat, but there's the same problem—keeping him warm without constant vigilance.

Maybe she could… She looks over at the bed. There's enough room for two people. Barely. Her Kryptonian physiology naturally gives off heat; it would help keep him warm... She shakes her head. No, it's too much, too soon. She can keep him warm with heat vision. All night if she has to.

In between reading the same page over and over on her screen, she listens for his heartbeat, checks his temperature, watches as he struggles fitfully below the covers to get comfortable. And whenever it's too much, she sends a light trickle of heat across his bed and he relaxes into full sleep again.

Somewhere around four a.m., she hears a whisper. "Kara?" 

She starts awake in the chair. "James?" she asks, just above a whisper. "Is something wrong?" But she knows. It's barely above freezing on his side of the room. She tiptoes over and sits on the edge of the bed.

"Have the plows come?"

She listens, sends her X-ray vision through the wall, sighting down the road as far as she can in either direction. "Not yet."

He groans, just a tightening in his throat that no one else can hear but her. "Thanks for checking." He closes his eyes and turns away from her, drawing his knees in tighter. But he doesn't fall asleep. 

She sighs and begins to heat him up again, and then stops herself. This is ridiculous. _She_ is being ridiculous. "James," she whispers.

"Yes?" She can hear the shiver in his voice.

"I can try…" Just say it. "...I can lie beside you, help keep you warm."

He turns his head toward her, and searches her face in the dim light coming through the crack in the curtain. She doesn't know what he sees there, but he nods. "Okay."

She curls up behind him, above the covers. He's still as she settles herself, so still that she wishes mind reading were one of her powers. Then she immediately regrets the thought. She doesn't want to know—it's weird enough to deal with her own feelings. 

After a minute, he relaxes, leaning back into her. And she waits. Waits for him to fall asleep again. She waits five minutes, ten minutes. Then he shivers.

"Still too cold?"

"No," he says, "it's fine." It's clearly not fine. 

Without asking, Kara lifts the covers and slides beneath. She curls up into him a little closer. "Does that help?" She wills more of her body heat to radiate into him. 

"Yes, much better." 

But also much worse. The way they are pressed together, she can feel every little movement… She tries to focus on how cold it is outside and how long it will be until the plows come through.

They lie that way for several minutes, and _finally_ his breathing slows, steadying with the rhythms of sleep. Kara, still hyper-aware of him, can't seem to let the exhaustion she's feeling overtake her. She checks on Cat, over in the next bed. She's as quiet as the dead, either completely asleep or faking it. Probably the former—her heartbeat is steady and regular. She is also much closer to the heater.

She can feel the warmth coming off James now, his heat mixing with hers, and his steady breathing starts to calm her. The way his steady presence has always calmed her. She pulls him in, just a little tighter, and he lets out a rush of breath, "Kara" whistling out at the end. She goes still, waiting to see if he's talking in his sleep. "Kara," he says again, eyes closed.

"James," she tries, but he doesn't answer back, lost in whatever dream he's having. A good one, she hopes. As lightly as she can, she gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Pleasant dreams."

His eyes spring open, just like that, and he turns his face to hers. For a moment, they stare at each other, blinking in the dim light.

"I—" she says, but that's all she gets out.

He turns all the way around, his mouth coming up to meet hers, and the rush of it overwhelms her. She's no longer thinking about the drifts of snow outside the window, the chill in the air—instead all she feels is the way his skin heats under her touch, the way his heart pounds, the overloud sound of his breath in her ears. 

Clark had once told her that he could hear Lois anywhere, that he had attuned himself so closely to her that she could be halfway across the world and he would be able to find her. And Kara seems to pulse, to breathe, to move in time with James. Cat could awaken and start shouting, the roof could cave in above them, and she isn't sure she would notice.

It's a long time later that they separate, panting in rhythm. Does he feel it, this connection they've forged? He drags in a breath. "Cat…?" he whispers.

Kara takes a moment to check. "She's still asleep." At least, Cat is asleep _now_. And as much as Kara wants otherwise... "We should try to get some, too. Some sleep, I mean."

He nods, his forehead rubbing against hers. "'Try' being the operative word here."

She huffs a laugh and wraps her arms around him, as tightly as she dares. As his exhaustion wins out over his arousal, he pulls her with him—finally—into glorious sleep.

* * *

Cat opens her eyes to the sunlight peeking through the curtain, a brilliant early morning light reflecting off the snow piled at the window. It's beautiful. Or it would be if it wasn't shining directly on her face. 

She sits up and stretches, takes a deep breath to see if she's picked up anything deadly overnight in this ghastly place. But her throat feels normal, and there's no congestion in her lungs. She can hear a beeping and roaring in the distance—the plows are coming through. Thank god.

She turns toward the other bed, and pauses. Kara's golden hair peeks out from under the covers, and Cat can see James' head beyond. They're snuggled up, fast asleep. Cat rolls her eyes. About time they finally stopped dancing around each other.

She takes a breath to wake them up—she wants to be out of here the moment the road is clear—but then she lets it out. Pulling back the curtain, she sees the plow. It'll be a while until the snow is cleared enough. Maybe hours. They can sleep a bit longer.

Cat lets the curtain fall closed, and then bends down to pull out her laptop from her bag. Her companions might be able to wait to face the day, but news waits for no one.


End file.
